“It is really disappointing.”

Production of brown and Oriental mustard was down, Penner said, while that of yellow mustard was up about 70 per cent, according to Statistics Canada numbers at the end of the year.

These numbers worked together to balance out carryover supplies from last year, Penner says.

“We have some adequate, comfortable supplies of all three classes this year,” he said, estimating total production from last year of around 200,000 tonnes and current supplies of around 265,000 tonnes.

In terms of demand, he said production in the United States was down about one-quarter from the previous year, at 47,000 tonnes, but with a decent sized carryover, he isn’t sure how this will affect global trade.

“Our guesstimate at that they’re looking at a slight contraction in supplies in the U.S. but not adequate for what they’ve done in the past. So, they’re going to still need imports.”

He says there’s also the major question of how trade between the two countries could be affected by a potential tariff.

“Are those imports going to move freely or at an extra price? We’ll maybe see something next week,” he said Jan. 16.

Russia, which produced about 183,000 tonnes of mustard in 2022, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, will likely be a less significant competitor this year due to decreased production and yields last year, Penner said.

At the same time, Ukraine is becoming a more significant player, with increased exports last year and likely even more this year.

“I do know from contacts in Ukraine that there has been more interest in growing niche crops like mustard because of all the uncertainty,” Penner said.

“They’re looking for crops specifically that they can export directly into the EU.”

In light of all this, Penner said he’s hoping to see Canada export about 105,000 tonnes of mustard this year, compared to about 90,000 tonnes last year.

“I’m trying to be really optimistic, but it’s not going to be a stellar year for exports.”

Longer term, he says the outlook isn’t much better.

“When you have lows in the mustard market, they’re long lows. I think we’re setting the stage for that same kind of scenario.”

The post Crop Production Show 2025: Mustard market outlook ‘disappointing’ appeared first on Canadian Cattlemen.

While the use of spray drones for chemical application is still illegal in Canada, research on how to use them efficiently and effectively is ongoing.

Much of Wolf’s research focuses on how to properly operate a drone for best spray application. He stressed the importance of flight height and speed because they effect the downwash and droplet distribution.

Ideal height of flight is about three metres from the ground, while ideal speed will vary depending on the amount of product deposit a producer wants, just like with a typical boom sprayer.

Wolf and his team have tested anywhere from four to 18 m.p.h. during their research.

However, because drones are slower than other aircraft and create their lift by pushing air downwards, there is a more significant downwash with drones than with piloted aircraft.

“On a piloted aircraft, we don’t have a lot of downwash — it generates a lot of downwash, but it’s diluted by forward travel speed,” he said.

A strong downwash is needed because it assists in the product effectively making it’s way through the canopy of plants to the ground. However, this downwash is also highly susceptible to drift, making it hard to create tight borders.

“In the middle of the drone pass, there’ll be heavy deposition, and on the edges it’ll be lighter and lighter and lighter,” Wolf told the crowd.

“You have to decide, where is it too light? Where do I have to start overlapping?”

According to Wolf, swath patterns and determining those overlaps are the biggest challenge with drones.

“We have to measure them, and they’re not as uniform as we’d like,” he said.

“So, there may be design features, faster flying speeds, getting under the downwash (to consider). We have a lot of work to do here to make sure that we actually don’t create problems.”

The post Crop Production Show 2025: Spray drone research continues appeared first on Canadian Cattlemen.

On Jan. 14, guests gathered in the high tower of the Sheraton Cavalier in Saskatoon for the premiere of License to Drive. It showcases equipment close-ups, in-the-cab footage and equipment exhibitors.

This is the second of three episodes in the documentary series, which is a behind-the-scenes look at what happens during Ag in Motion, the annual outdoor farm show that happens every July near Langham, Sask.

With the equipment focus in mind, GFM’s machinery editor, Scott Garvey, is featured sharing his knowledge. Many will know Garvey from his videos and articles on all different types of farm machinery.

In the film, Garvey shared tidbits such as how and why farm machines adopted tracks instead of tires and what being at the show is like, likening it to DisneyWorld for farmers.

This episode’s focus is on the big equipment, while the first episode features cattle and livestock handling equipment. Episode one launched in November during Canadian Western Agribition. The third and final episode will launch in February.

Melonee Ochitwa, GFM’s Saskatchewan sales and sponsorship co-ordinator, has had a hand in the organization of Ag in Motion for the last three years and has also appeared in the documentary.

She shared her excitement about the series and at seeing the second episode come to life, after having a sneak peak at some of the clips before hand.

“It’s amazing when it all comes together, and it’s always so exciting. And it always amazes me how they can kind of take all these little pieces and put it together and make it a show.”

Ochitwa has a background in agricultural manufacturing, and comes from a farm family, so she’s familiar with what’s important to farmers when looking at equipment. Ag in Motion is a great spot to do it, too, she added, with the ability to do more than just look.

“It really gives them those touch points of being able to see … but when they can actually experience it, feel it, see it run, it just makes all the difference.”

The show features equipment demonstrations and the ability to test drive the machinery. Garvey gets the chance to do just that in the documentary, even having a little competition with Western Producer editor Robin Booker.

This casualness adds to the community feel of the show, which Garvey and Ochitwa say is a key piece of it.

“It doesn’t matter whether you’re a competitor, you know, side by side,” Ochitwa said.

“When you’re at Ag in Motion, everybody is friends, you’re all friends in the business trying to provide the best solution for our farmers.”

Episode two, License to Drive, is available on YouTube. Episode one, Working Cattle, and other ag videos, such as Garvey’s equipment features, are also available on the Western Producer‘s YouTube channel.

The post Crop Production Show 2025: Episode two of Western Producer documentary launches appeared first on Canadian Cattlemen.

“Across Canada, there’s about 1,200 breweries. I can guarantee you, just about all of them are using oats to some degree,” he said today at the SaskOats annual general meeting in Saskatoon.

Heise, who is president and chief executive officer of Regina’s Rebellion Brewery, estimates his operation uses about 100 pounds of oats per batch of beer, and uses oats in about half of its beers.

“An individual brewer isn’t probably using a whole bunch of oats, but as an industry, it ends up being a significant amount.”

Although oats have been used as an ingredient in beer for centuries, for both health and trade reasons, Heise says this most recent surge in use in Canada has happened alongside the growth of the craft beer industry, which began in the 1980s.

One of the most popular types of craft beers in North America is the India Pale Ale, (IPA), which features hoppy flavours and intense aromas.

One style of IPA beer, hazy IPAs, is custom made for oats, Heise said.

“Hops can be a little aggressive and bitter, so the oats really help smooth that out. It creates this textured mouth-feel creaminess,” he said, adding the oats add the desired haziness.

“There’s this ‘haze craze’ going on in craft beer. That’s why the oats are really taking off. Every single one of us (brewers) is using a ton more oats than we ever have before.”

Oats are also commonly used in stouts to add flavour and texture.

And in recent years, brewers have begun to discover additional benefits of using oats in beer, in terms of both brewing and marketing, Heise said.

“It actually improves fermentation and yeast health, and that’s really critical to get a nice, clean tasting beer,” he said, adding that using oats can also help improve shelf stability.

“I think it’s phenomenal — the marketing around oats as being healthy is not a bunch of BS.”

Unfortunately, he said his brewery’s oat use isn’t likely to have much of an impact on Saskatchewan oat producers’ overall profitability, despite the fact he’s happy to pay a premium for locally produced ingredients.

“I don’t think much of that ends up in your pockets. We are a very, very tiny part of the oat market, but we’re doing our part to try to boost those prices up.”

The post Crop Production Show 2025: Oat beers having a moment appeared first on Canadian Cattlemen.

“I’ll be quite surprised if he (U.S. president-elect Donald Trump) doesn’t implement the tariffs on his first day,” said oat market analyst Randy Strychar at the SaskOats 2025 annual general meeting held today during the Crop Production Show in Saskatoon.

“That’s going to include oats and oat products.”

However, there are many unknowns to be addressed before the industry should start panicking, he said.

“It’s the U.S. companies that are going to have to scramble and find out what the U.S. government wants, how they administer it, and that’s a big deal.”

In the longer term, if the tariffs stay in place, there will likely be price erosion for Canadian oats, said Strychar, who is also the president and owner of Ag Commodity Research and Oatinformation.com

“So just right off the top of your head, if you’re getting four and a half bucks a bushel in Western Canada, take 25 per cent off of that down the road.”

He said feed markets would likely be impacted by tariffs early on.

“I’ve already got some U.S. companies saying, ‘we’ll just stop buying Canadian oats in the feed sector.’ That’s about 300 to 400 metric tonnes a year.”

However, he said importers would likely choose to continue to import Canadian oats longer term and pay the tariff because importing from countries such as Australia, the United Kingdom and European Union isn’t viable for a number of reasons.

“Early indications are, and all the millers down in the U.S. are running the math right now, it’s cheaper to pay the tariff and then ultimately, my guess is, they’ll pass it back on to the Canadian farmers.”

He said another factor working in favour of local oat producers is that Canadian oats are in demand by consumers, and food companies will need to protect their brands.

“Canadian oats are great, and they’re marketed. People understand where most of those oats are coming from.”

Overall, Strychar said he doesn’t believe Canadian oat producers should be panicking about U.S. tariffs just yet.

“We’re probably not going to see a lot of reduction in the actual number of oats they take,” he said.

“There are so many things up in the air on this. The reality is it’s an erratic political agenda that we’re about to face as Canadians and a Canadian marketplace, and we just don’t know what’s going to play out.”

The post Crop Production Show 2025: U.S. tariffs could impact Canadian oat market as early as next week appeared first on Canadian Cattlemen.

However, the organization’s chief executive officer, Dean Dias, defended the Global Agricultural Technology Exchange, proposed for downtown Winnipeg.

He said if Canada wants to continue to be a top exporter and preferred choice of its customers, it has to be able to prove quality and consistency.

Dias said the roller mill in the current facility hasn’t been upgraded since 2000, for example.

Several producers at the SaskWheat annual meeting Jan. 14 questioned the need for a new building.

Edenwold, Sask., farmer Alanna Koch said she was concerned about the amount of money SaskWheat has committed to the project and why new real estate was required when there are so many empty buildings in downtown areas.

Dias said a lease is not feasible.

“No developer is willing to break down walls to put a three-storey mill in there,” he said.

The facility requires a certain type of concrete to carry the load, as well as electrical systems that can deal with flammable products, Dias said.

Jeff Mathieson, who farms in central Saskatchewan, asked why other Cereals Canada members haven’t committed funds. Only several crop commissions from the Prairie provinces have done so.

SaskWheat chair Jake Leguee said the commission pledged $6.2 million as a signal to others that farmers are committed to the project. If it doesn’t go ahead, the commission won’t spend the money.

The post Crop production show 2025: Producers at SaskWheat question proposed building appeared first on Canadian Cattlemen.

The system allows growers to monitor and record activities from different farm equipment types and brands. The updated version offers what the company says is “enhanced processing power, increased data storage and improved in-field connection stability that improves seeding, spraying and harvesting data integration.”

“Drive one came out in 2016,” says Andria Karstens, FieldView’s product value lead.

“In the eight to nine years, a lot of technology has changed. We’ve had some increases in technology when it comes to Bluetooth, processing power and data security.

“We’re able to provide farmers with a better connectivity experience when they’re in the field. That’s a big part of the new hardware, bringing that new technology to market.”

FieldView Drive 2.0 also has improved compatibility, allowing it to communicate with the digital systems of newer equipment. It also allows for a simpler installation in the cab, eliminating the need for some cabling and making use of Bluetooth connectivity.

It can be used to transfer prescription maps to equipment in the field without the need for a thumb drive.

“We can use the drive as our transfer device,” says Karstens.

“It makes it easier to get those prescriptions into the cab of the equipment.”

Using FieldView, producers can create their own prescription maps ahead of time as well as generate as-applied maps from in-cab generated data. The system is compatible with most original equipment manufacturer systems, so transferring that data between machines of different brands is now easier.

“Sometimes those (OEM) cloud softwares don’t always talk to each other to move data around,” she adds.

“We can use FieldView in the cab in different pieces of equipment to collect data all in one place.

“If you didn’t want to use FieldView hardware, there are other options, such as a data inbox, which basically means you can take the information from your OEM monitors, download it and then upload it into the FieldView cloud.”

There are a few ways FieldView can connect with different pieces of equipment, depending on what data a grower wants to collect, the year of the machine and what kind of GPS monitors are in it.

“If you’re connected into a rate controller, it’s going to automatically map that with what rate you’re putting seed down at and potentially fertilizer, too, if you’re mapping that,” says Karstens.

“It will paint multiple layers you can toggle between and have a nice visual (map) at the end of the day.”

FieldView is available on an annual $500 per year subscription basis, along with an initial purchase of the hardware. Included in the subscription is access to periodic satellite images taken throughout the growing season.

“On average, you should get an updated image around every two weeks,” says Karstens.

“Depending on cloud cover and weather events, that could change. You can drop pins and keep track of things in the field if you wanted to use it for a scouting tool.”

The post Bayer introduces FieldView Drive 2.0 at Crop Production Show 2025 appeared first on Canadian Cattlemen.

“There are two areas where we’re falling down,” Saskatchewan deputy agriculture minister Bill Greuel said during an agriculture research panel discussion held Tuesday in Saskatoon as part of Crop Production Week 2025.

“One is front-end basic research and science, and the other is downstream commercialization and collaboration between governments and industry to bring those inventions to market.”

Greuel says the Saskatchewan government invests $37 million a year in ag research, a number that has increased over the last two decades, but he would like to see increasing investments from the federal government as well.

“If you look at everything that’s happening globally, from a trade perspective, a climate change perspective, a growth and population perspective, we’ve got all of this land here in Canada that we better be utilizing as an asset.”

However, increasing funding won’t address all the challenges facing the research community, said Angela Bedard-Haughn, dean of the College of Agriculture and Bioresources at the University of Saskatchewan.

“It’s not just a matter of money,” she said, emphasizing the need to support all stages of research and development, including innovation through to commercialization.

“There’s almost a bit of a culture shift that needs to accompany that.”

Saskatchewan is uniquely well positioned to innovate when it comes to ag research, said Steve Webb, executive director of the Global Institute for Food Security at the U of S.

“We have all the industry players here, we have a growing investment piece, and we have connectivity with the farmers, the grower groups,” he said.

“It’s one of a kind in the world.”

Because of this, he believes we should be seeing more market-impact innovation coming from the province.

“We have to be thinking about return on investment, the opportunity for us to get more bang for the buck from a Canadian perspective.”

The productivity problem is complex, panelists agreed, caused and affected by issues such as a lack of funding and access to capital for ag research, lacking infrastructure, public trust issues and Canada’s regulatory environment.

But despite the scope of these challenges, Greuel says that addressing them should be a top priority within the agriculture sector right now.

“The world is getting more competitive. The trade environment is getting more competitive. If our farmers can’t be more competitive on a global scale, we’re going to be in trouble.”

The post Crop Production Show 2025: Ag research sector has productivity problem: panellists appeared first on Canadian Cattlemen.